More than 15 San Francisco YCW members gathered for an intimate evening with foreign policy expert Dr. Graham Allison, Director of Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Dr. Allison led members in a discussion of the prospects for the future of US-China engagement through the historical framework he offers in his new book, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
Director of Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Graham Allison is a leading analyst of U.S. national security and defense policy with a special interest in nuclear weapons, terrorism, and decision-making. As Assistant Secretary of Defense in the first Clinton Administration, Dr. Allison received the Defense Department’s highest civilian award, the Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. He has served as a founding member of the Trilateral Commission, a Director of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has been a member of public committees and commissions. He currently serves on the Advisory boards of the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and the Director of the CIA.
His latest book, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in May 2017. His 2013 book, Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States and the World (co-authored with Robert Blackwill), has been a bestseller in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Allison’s first book, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (1971), was released in an updated and revised second edition (1999) and ranks among the all-time bestsellers with more than 450,000 copies in print.
Dr. Allison was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was educated at Davidson College; Harvard College (B.A., magna cum laude, in History); Oxford University (B.A. and M.A., First Class Honors in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics); and Harvard University (Ph.D. in Political Science).
